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Political endorsements are a tradition as old as newspapers. It's one of the reasons newspaper publishers started newspapers. We look forward to upholding that fine tradition in time for the May 6 special election for mayor.

We'll do what we always do: Evaluate the candidates as best we can — all eight — make as informed a decision as we can on who is best, and share our decision probably no later than Sunday, April 23, the day before early voting begins.

Ideally, voters will incorporate our opinion into an informed decision based on their own extensive reading and viewing of news reports and perhaps even their attendance at candidate forums, where they can ask questions and evaluate the candidates' answers and demeanor.

Again, that's the ideal, not the reasonable expectation. Voting isn't a full-time job that pays the bills. It's reasonable for them to rely on the people whose full-time job is to report and evaluate news. Caller-Times news reporters have been covering candidate forums and interviewing candidates on Facebook Live. Their job is to report facts, not their opinions. Opinions are the editorial board's role, and that role is kept separate from the news reporting role.

If you already know all of this and are wondering why it's being explained, it's in no small part because we whose purpose is opinion are accused so often of being opinionated. The endorsement role has come increasingly under fire. It's a useful undertaking that we don't want to give up. To know it is to love it — or, failing that, to love hating it enough that you'd miss it if we stopped.

So, as you may already know and maybe won't mind too much being reminded, our endorsement will be an informed opinion representing the board's members collectively. Contrary to widespread assumptions, it will not be our opinion on who will win the election. We pick who we believe to be the best candidate, and often that's not who we expect to win. In the 2016 general election we endorsed the Libertarian candidate for Railroad Commission, knowing he didn't have a chance but knowing also that we were right.

We were right and wrong about the 2016 mayoral race — wrong in expecting incumbent Nelda Martinez to win and right that she was the better choice. Some if not many of those who voted against her probably still disagree with us on that. But if past behavior is, as they say, predictive, at least she'd still be mayor and there would be no need for a special election.

The city is in this predicament because voters in November chose Dan McQueen, knowing little about him other than that he wasn't Martinez. That was enough for many if not the vast majority of those who voted for him. McQueen flaked out after only five weeks in office, after discovering that being mayor entails a level of public attention to which Martinez is accustomed, but that he neither liked nor was prepared to handle.

Now Martinez is among the eight candidates. It is not safe for her or anyone else to assume that she is a shoo-in for our endorsement. Having been the better choice in November when she lost doesn't automatically make her the best choice now. Nor does having lost disqualify her. She has both the advantage and disadvantage of our knowing her.

That's an advantage and disadvantage shared by three other candidates — Margareta Fratila, Ray Madrigal and Joe McComb. McComb, currently an at-large councilman, has the additional advantage and disadvantage of being the only other experienced officeholder. We know Fratila and Madrigal because they are not first-time candidates.

Three of the other four candidates have the advantage and disadvantage of being unknowns — Jonathan Garison, James M. Hernandez and Larry White. We look forward to getting to meet and know more about them.

Candidate Mark Di Carlo has some name recognition from being a longtime lawyer and hosting a public-access show. He has declined our invitation to meet with our board. We will evaluate him as best we can without the benefit of that interview.

The important thing for voters is to know enough about all of the candidates to prevent another McQueen-like experience. We knew enough to know not to endorse him. We did not know enough to know that we should have taken the extra step of warning explicitly against him. There's no way to know if having done that would have affected the outcome. But we don't intend to make that mistake this time.

Contact Tom Whitehurst Jr. at tom.whitehurst@caller.com or 361-886-3619. Join him on Twitter @WhitehurstJr.